Once again I am up at night suffering as usual from the ramblings of my noisy mind but this time, restless about the future of a political party that seems to have no clear cut direction and is on the verge of consuming itself, wondering the fate of our democracy if the opposition is not really an opposition but perhaps just a shell corporation to convince us we have a choice when the reality clearly shows we stuck in a one party state. The PDP is a shadow of its former self, perhaps less than a shadow, a silhouette that is fading fast and almost as if orchestrated.

The self-acclaimed largest political party in Africa ( the title is now disputed since half of its members turned into grasshoppers overnight and jumped into the welcoming hands of the ruling party) was formed in the year 1998 and ruled from 1999 to 2015, a laudable 16 years but it seems the party didn’t learn anything in those 16 years, instead it continued to delude itself that power was its birthright and the status quo would always remain the same , fast forward to the aftermath of the 2015 elections and suddenly realization dawned on the party like the morning sun and it was a new era that neither the party not its erstwhile members were prepared for, and there was an even bigger problem , the now ruling party continues acting as though it is in the opposition and the opposition party continues to delude itself that it is the ruling party. How did PDP sink itself into a pit of grand delusions and self-aggrandizement? And what is it doing to bring itself out ?, well I can categorically answer that question and the answer is simply nothing, nada, zilch , zero or whatever you can describe a lack of action in the face of the most humiliating defeat in its history.
I have always wondered what ideology the then ruling party PDP had, what was it that bounded its members, what did it stand for, what was its political position, its economic stance, its social views, what made it so loved by Nigerians but like an erstwhile quote from Martin luther king, jr reads “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. The true measure of the PDP came after its defeat in the 2015 elections, the handwriting was already on the wall in the days leading to the election and many party faithful’s decided to jump the sinking ship, to be honest I was surprised by the rate of defection, the mighty PDP had suddenly became a leper, a pariah that nobody wanted to be associated with and it all boils down to an ideology that could not stand the test of time, a party is supposed to be almost a lifelong affair because it speaks to the kind of person you are, research has being carried out that shows that members of certain political parties behave in a certain way , buy certain things and all of this is because political party indicates the values you hold dear, the ideology of a political party is usually but not limited to the personal held beliefs and closely held values , so you can forgive my surprise when the news cycle was filled with news of everyday defections, what was the party ideology, well some people would say the party has none , I beg to differ , the party has an ideology , at least some of us are old enough to remember the good old days of chants of PDP !!!! and the party member screaming at top of their greedy voices SHARE THE MONEY!!!!!, that was the ideology and as soon as it became obvious that the money was no longer be available to distributed like hot akara , everybody looked for their meal ticket. The party was little more than a meal ticket and that was what it sold to Nigerians and Nigerians bought it while they were hungry , but the thing with food is that it does not necessarily satisfies and once someone comes along with better food and perhaps with added beverages, people had no choice but to jump ship. Politics has changed , it is no more blind and all about thuggery, politics is now about education, propaganda, statistics and public relations and to survive in today’s political arena , PDP has to employ all of them. There has to be a clear ideology, one that is reminiscent of today’s world and the challenges people are facing, one that identifies with the values of majority of Nigerians.

I appreciates aesthetics, and as such this criticism would be on a superficial basis. I imagine one of the reasons why the PDP lost was a failure to realize the world has moved digital , that more and more Nigerians were spending their time on the internet , using social media, downloading music, movies and basically anything the internet offers and those who weren’t using the internet were listening to those savvy enough to use it and a large percentage of Nigerians are gullible enough to believe anything written on the internet without proof reading or fact checking and the then opposition and now ruling party APC used that as an advantage . we forgive the PDP for whatever happened then, we totally understand, atleast the republican party in the united states had a similar problem in the 2008 elections when Obama championed a message of change (ironically that’s the same message APC preached) , used it internet and made history by electing America’s first black president but the difference between the two political parties is how they responded to their respective defeats on the online angle , while the republican party completely revamped its online strategy , my darling PDP has refused to adopt an online strategy instead relying on a few spokespersons that adopting a total online effort to change not its image but deliver its message if it still has one and I must commend the efforts of youg people who everyday waste their precious internet data acquired with hard earned money in this blame game economy of ours to defend the PDP and champion the cause of a an otherwise dead party. Just take a look at its website and you’d be forgiven if you think it was made by student with a diploma in web programming, from the font to the color, to the organization, its simply amateurish at best, I can list dozens of everyday music sites and blogs with better organization and content, the facebook page is simple the result of what would happen if my 80 year old grandma decided she wanted to open a facebook page for her fura business, the most annoying is its Wikipedia page, it has fewer content than m.i’s page on Wikipedia and this is a national political party that has ruled a nation for 16 years , I mean someone at the leadership of the page has to know that people will only buy what you sell and right now on the media front , the PDP is still selling utter rubbish, crap and whatever word that can describe disgust at incompetency.

The youths had a role in play in the election 2015 elections perhaps more than at any time in Nigeria’s history and they would define the 2019 elections. The PDP is doing an absolute poor job of integrating youths into its political machine, and just like a car engine, all the old parts would get faulty one way or ther and well if the engine doesn’t go KAPUT, then you’d have to resort to expensive repairs. The party has to realize it has to start building up its youth base or the youth would become disillusioned with its system and look for alternatives , put young intellectuals in positions where they can deliver, make them part of the party leadership and by youths, I do no mean a 45 year old father of four who should be getting ready to retire if he is in the civil service , I mean vibrant young minds with the capability to structure the party as the party of the 21st century and make sure the party can brave the challenges of the 21st century . it is evident from the party’s website that young people are not factored in, there is no section or tab for them, nothing speaking about the role of young people in the party , and while some people would maintain that I have no idea what is actually happening on the ground, I would like to remind them of the same delusions they had before the elections maintaining that PDP was winning on the ground, yeah well, I assume they won on the ground but APC won at the top where it mattered. It’s a no brainer, a country that has a youth population of above 63% would clearly mean that whoever wins the youth votes wins elections but leave it to the old men who know better than all the statisticians in the world with their tested, tried and failed ideas to come up with archaic reasons as to why youths are not ready to lead the party. It is time for the PDP to think ahead, to play the long game as con men would say, to ensure the survival of the party. I have lost confidence in the ability of these old men with no sense of purpose to lead the party and I am sure many young Nigerians feel that way, give the reins to younger, energetic people albeit a bit inexperienced but from behind the scenes, guide us with your experience but do not lead. It’s a new era , and the leaders of tomorrow are here today

I love the word restructure, for me it means removing the bad, airbrushing the ugly and well highlighting the good. I often wondered how a restructure of the party would look like and well I am still waiting for it to be done, I think PDP should probably ask the APC for the contact of the American PR firm that helped them win the last elections to help the PDP restructure and solve its image crisis because if it doesn’t know yet, it has a big image crisis on its hands and the clumsiness in the way it handles it is like watching a duck trying to shoot a shotgun. First , a party spokesman specifically the party’s national publicity secretary is embroiled in a corruption scandal whether true or concocted should in no way the party’s spokesman , he should resign the position , at this critical juncture, the party should try to shed its image as the party of looters, corrupt official and kleptomaniacs , just imagine someone used as the face of an anti-drug campaign doubling as a drug dealer, it just doesn’t work. I see a lot of efforts by youths like myself who support the party trying to defend the party’s spokesperson but I feel it’s time for the party to rebrand itself and leave people like that in the wilderness where they belong, it actually solves two things , one being that if they are actually corrupt, well, they have to pay for their crimes , two being if they are only being probed and tried because of their affiliation to the party then there would be no sense trying them if the party has distanced itself from them. The corrupt have to answer for their crimes wherever they might belong and what even more stupid is the leadership of the party trying to heat up the polity by saying the people being probed are probed because of their party affiliation, when the wise thing to do would be to distance themselves. I am even more surprised that PDP once heralded as the party with a national flavor is now turning into a regional party with its power concentrated in the south south and south east, how the hell ( excuse my French ) is this party going to win the 2019 elections whith its stronghold being only two geo-political zones , except If the birth rate dramatically increases and then kid become over 18 years of age overnight then it’s going to be a real decisive victory otherwise like my mum would say to things without reason, it is clearly BALDERDASH!!!!!, I mean now is the time to slowly rebuild in the places heavily lost, galvanize support in the north, sell the message to the west and consolidate membership like never before, every day should be treated as an election day and come election day, victory would be assured. Its going to be a hard task rebranding the PDP but 4 years should be enough to do just that.

I AM A PDP FAITHFUL BUT I AM NOT BLIND NEITHER AM I STUPID TO SEE THAT THE UMBRELLA CAN NO LONGER COVER US ALL AND THAT IT NEEDS TO BE REPAIRED


REFRENCES:
http://peoplesdemocraticparty.com.ng/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Democratic_Party_(Nigeria)
http://www.idea.int/vt/countryview.cfm?id=168
http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/weekly/index.php/politics/20330-how-youths-fared-in-the-2015-general-elections
https://www.gop.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Official-Peoples-Democratic-Party-PDP-Nigeria-333519270030012/?ref=hl
and finally ME!!!!!!!

@lalastical front page material , e long but shey we need to promote a reading culture

Feeeeeeee Deeeeeeee Feeeeeeee.
Take heart

It's too late to cry over a split milk, now is time to violate zoning agreements and sidelined major stakeholder and dame the consequences. I see more defect loading by next general elections. pdp tickets are shared to cult members and Godfathers. A fiction kidnapping the delegates and national working committee after eating yam will ok it and declare is fair and free, pdp is synonymous with corruption now. Too little to late. Impunity has consequences.